Black screen upon starting up Kubuntu

[Alan Dacey Sr.]

On Wednesday 10 March 2010 08:14:56 pm Keith Clark wrote:
> I have an up to date installation of Ubuntu/Kubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 and I
> cannot seem to start up Kubuntu.  It starts, I see the initial startup
> screen, it fades to a black background.  Akonadi starts up fine but
> turns black right after that.  I can hit Alt-F2 and the command window
> pops up.  I can hit ctl-alt-del and the logout window pops up fine but I
> cannot do much else as I cannot see any menu bars or backgrounds.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> Keith

I tried installing a fresh 10.04 A3 and had a similar problem.  I just drop to 
tty 2 and can't use the gui at all, tty 7 seems to be forbidden.  No amount of 
changing/purging/tweaking the nvidia drivers help at all.  I also can't get to 
boot from the cd on a stick, although that may be my motherboard.  I also 
installed the first 10.04 beta in a separate partition and upgraded it every 
time I booted into it.  I can not get any composting working in that one.  I 
have a feeling that something is still being hammered out in the video code 
and is not quite ready.  The only things I have not done is test with a new 
user and if that doesn't work then purge the entire KDE desktop, reboot, and 
install it again.
I'll be following this thread if anybody has better ideas.

-- 
Alan

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from 
the support of a cause we believe to be just."
Abraham Lincoln